The work of legendary genre director Kinji Fukasaku, BATTLE ROYALE is a film that describes a near-future Japan where teenagers have become so unruly that the government has been forced to pass laws to control them – and weed out the population. The so-called “Battle Royale” act calls for a randomly selected high school class to be sent to a remote location where they must fight to the death amongst themselves. Coached by a former teacher (Japanese genre icon Takeshi Kitano), the 42 students are given limited supplies, a randomly selected ‘weapon,’ and three days to kill each other. The last boy or girl standing wins the right to keep on living.

Presaging the similarly themed The Hunger Games by almost 10 years, BATTLE ROYALE is a disturbing and brutal – but not entirely unbelievable – apotheosis of ‘youth gone wild’ films. The film was a huge hit in Japan upon its initial release, but its controversial nature, and the high-hopes of its producers, kept it from any kind of official theatrical release in the U.S. Now, thanks to a Blu-ray reissue by home entertainment label Anchor Bay, we are finally able to show this amazing genre masterpiece on the big screen the way it was meant to be seen.